The Lives of the English Poets: and a Criticism of Their Work

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Página 44 In his poem on the death of Hervey, there is much praise, but little passion, a very
just and ample delineation of such virtues as a studious privacy admits, and such
intellectual excellence as a mind not yet called forth to action can display.

Página 216 Milton's delight was to sport in the wide regions of possibility ; reality was a scene
too narrow for his mind. He sent his faculties out upon discovery, into worlds
where only imagination can travel, and delighted to form new modes of existence
, ...

Página 220 Being therefore not new, they raise no unaccustomed emotion in the mind ; what
we knew before we cannot learn ; what is not unexpected cannot surprise. Of the
ideas suggested by these awful scenes, from some we recede with reverence, ...

Página 288 Of this poem, in which personal satire was- applied to the support of publick
principles, and in which therefore every mind was interested, the reception was
eager, and the sale so large, that my father, an old bookseller, told me, he had
not ...

Página 368 IN a general survey of Dryden's labours, he appears to have had a mind very
comprehensive by nature, and much enriched with acquired knowledge. His
compositions are the effects of a vigorous genius operating upon large materials.

Página 192 - We know that they never drove a field, and that they had no flocks to batten; and though it be allowed that the representation may be allegorical, the true meaning is so uncertain and remote, that it is never sought because it cannot be known when it is found.

Página 141 - ... devout prayer to that eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases...

Página 185 - To be of no Church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by Faith and Hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind, unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.

Página 317 - Of him that knows much it is natural to suppose that he has read with diligence; yet I rather believe that the knowledge of Dryden was gleaned from accidental intelligence and various conversation; by a quick apprehension, a judicious selection, and a happy memory, a keen appetite of knowledge, and a powerful digestion...

Página 501 - James, whose skill in physic will be long remembered ; and with David Garrick, whom I hoped to have gratified with this character of our common friend. But what are the hopes of man ? I am disappointed by that stroke of death which has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.

Página 22 - Yet great labour directed by great abilities is never wholly lost : if they frequently threw away their wit upon false conceits, they likewise sometimes struck out unexpected truth ; if their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage. To write on their plan, it was at least necessary to read and think.

Página 176 - ... read for pleasure or accomplishment, and who buy the numerous products of modern typography, the number was then comparatively small. To prove the paucity of readers, it may be sufficient to remark, that the nation had been satisfied from 1623 to 1664, that is, forty-one years, with only two editions of the works of Shakspeare, which probably did not together make one thousand copies.

Página 341 - From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began : When Nature underneath a heap of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high. Arise ye more than dead. Then cold and hot, and moist and dry, In order to their stations leap, And music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began : From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in man.